17
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself as I yanked down the door at the side of the van. Could they have made this thing any harder to use if they’d set out especially to do so?
“You all right there?” Amaya called to me as she wheeled her sister out of the home and toward the van I was trying to beat into submission. I nodded.
“Yeah, it’ll be fine,” I assured her, kicking the ramp to make sure it wasn’t going to give out beneath her sister. “You ready?”
“Yup,” Jolene called back to him, and she had a grin on her face that threatened to split it in two. I couldn’t help but smile back. I was supposed to be meeting with my family today, but I had begged off dinner with them once I realized it had been a couple of weeks, and I still hadn’t fulfilled my promise to take Jolene out for a day with the two of us. Amaya had been nervous, but she had agreed, and I was already looking forward to getting out of the city for a while. It had been a long week at work, and I hadn’t had a chance to see a lot of Amaya. I was craving her presence. It might have been a little crazy, but I had started looking forward to coming home to see her, to our apartment filled with all the color and life I had done my best to keep out all these years.
“Okay, let me give you a hand.” I reached down to help Amaya maneuver the wheelchair into the van the home had loaned us.
“Do I get to know where I’m going yet?” Jolene asked. “She won’t tell me yet.”
“Don’t you dare,” Amaya warned me as she climbed into the back with her sister. “Just drive.”
“At your service.” I saluted the two of them playfully and started on the journey down to the part of town we’d picked out for today’s outing. Amaya had chosen a part of the boardwalk that was packed-out with food trucks because Jolene loved to eat and had started showing an interest in cooking as a career. She would be so excited to try out all the different cuisines, Amaya had assured me, and I was looking forward to enjoying a meal I didn’t gulp down at my desk between meetings.
I could hear them laughing and talking in the back, the conversation rapid-fire as they caught up on everything that had happened since the last time they’d spoken. Amaya called her sister every day, usually, but I guessed it was different in person. I heard my name a few times and tried not to think too hard about what she might be saying about me.
When we arrived, Amaya took her time getting Jolene out of the van while her sister tapped her fingers on the arms of her chair impatiently.
“Come on, I don’t have all day,” she teased as Amaya and I lifted her from the van, and her eyes darted around as soon as we put her down. When she saw all the trucks lined up along the sidewalk, she didn’t seem to give a shit about the gray sky or the cold breeze. Her eyes lit up, and she turned to Amaya with a huge grin.
“This is perfect.” She squeezed her sister’s hand. “Thank you. But how am I supposed to choose what to get something from?”
“Try something from every stand,” I cut in. “Anything you want. On me.”
Amaya turned to me and furrowed her brow. She mouthed are you sure? I nodded. I wanted this to be a fun day for all of us. It was times like this that I was glad I had the money I did, that I could spend the cash to give Jolene a great day out.
“Holy crap,” she exclaimed, and Amaya opened her mouth to scold her for her language but thought better of it. Instead, she shook her head and smiled.
“I guess we should get started, then.” She took hold of Jolene’s wheelchair. “We’ve got a whole lot of food to try.”
And that was that. The day went so quickly, the three of us taking our time as we picked out the most appealing dishes at every one of the trucks. We had doughnuts, waffles, grilled halloumi, battered squid, tapas, sliders, milkshakes—pretty much everything we could carry, we tried. Jolene was the most adventurous out of the lot of us, trying even the stuff Amaya took pause over. She seemed impressed I knew so much about food, testing my knowledge and asking about the fancy restaurants I’d been to. It was clear she had a deep passion for this stuff, and I was seriously impressed at how engaged she already was with gastronomy as a whole.
“I don’t think I can eat another bite,” Amaya groaned eventually as she sat on the edge of a bench and tilted her head up to the sky.
“I’m pretty sure we’ve tried every one of the trucks on this street,” Jolene said with a giggle.
“You had a good day?” Amaya asked, and Jolene nodded.
“Yeah, and I don’t think I’m ever going to need to eat again,” she replied. “I saw one of the trucks had a sign up for a food festival soon. Maybe we could go to that?”
“I’ll take you,” I suggested. “I have a bigger appetite than your sister. I won’t tap out after three bites of squid.”
“Okay, in my defense, it was squid,” Amaya protested. “It’s not meant to be eaten. I’m sorry, that’s just weird.”
“Or maybe you need to get on our level.” I winked at Jolene, who grinned back.
“You can keep it.” Amaya waved her hand at us.
“Yeah, well, maybe I’ll take Kristo out by myself.” Jolene shot a look at her sister. “Watch your back.”
“All right, maybe give me time to digest first,” I replied, and she giggled. Looking down at my watch. I grimaced.
“Hey, we should be getting you back to the home,” I remarked, and Jolene rolled her eyes.
“Oh, can’t we stay a little bit longer?” Jolene pleaded. I looked at Amaya, who frowned.